A number of medical conditions, such as compression of spinal cord nerve roots, degenerative disc disease, and trauma can cause severe back pain. Intervertebral fusion is a surgical method of alleviating back pain. In intervertebral fusion, two adjacent vertebral bodies are fused together by removing the affected intervertebral disc and inserting an implant that would allow for bone to grow between the two vertebral bodies to bridge the gap left by the removed disc.
A number of different implants and implant materials have been used for fusion with varying success. Current implants for intevertebral fusion include metallic cages and allografts. Metallic cages suffer from the disadvantage of requiring drilling and tapping of the vertebral endplates for insertion. In addition, the incidence of subsidence in long term use is not known. Due to MRI incompatibility of metallic cages, determining fusion is problematic.
Allografts are sections of bone taken from the diaphysis of a long bone, such as the radius, ulna, fibula, humerus, tibia, or femur of a donor. A cross-section of the bone is taken and processed using known techniques to preserve the allograft until implantation and reduce the risk of an adverse immunological response when implanted. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,470 discloses a method for processing a bone grafting material which uses glutaraldehyde tanning to produce a non-antigenic, biocompatible material. Allografts have mechanical properties which are similar to the mechanical properties of vertebrae even after processing. This prevents stress shielding that occurs with metallic implants. They also promote the formation of bone, i.e., osteoconductive, and are also MRI compatible so that fusion can be more accurately ascertained. Although the osteoconductive nature of the allograft provides a biological interlocking between the allograft and the vertebrae for long term mechanical strength, initial and short term mechanical strength of the interface between the allograft and the vertebrae needs to be addressed to minimize the possibility of the allograft being expelled after implantation.
Most allografts are simply sections of bone which, although cut to the approximate height of the disc being replaced, have not been sized and/or machined on the exterior surface to have a uniform shape. As a result, the fusion of the vertebral bodies does not occur in optimal anatomic position or in a consistent manner along the surface of the endplates. While a surgeon may do some minimal intraoperative shaping and sizing to customize the allograft for the patient's spinal anatomy, significant shaping and sizing of the allograft during the procedure is not possible due to the nature of the allograft. Even if extensive shaping and sizing were possible, a surgeon's ability to manually shape and size the allograft to the desired dimensions is limited.
With respect to the overall structure of a given bone, the mechanical properties vary throughout the bone. For example, a long bone (leg bone) such as the femur has both cortical bone and cancellous bone. Cortical bone, the compact and dense bone that surrounds the marrow cavity, is generally solid and thus carries the majority of the load in long bones. Cancellous bone, the spongy inner bone, is generally porous and ductile, and when compared to cortical bone is only about one-third to one-quarter as dense, one-tenth to one-twentieth as stiff, but five times as ductile. While cancellous bone has a tensile strength of about 10–20 MPa and a density of about 0.7, cortical bone has a tensile strength of about 100–200 MPa and a density of about 2. Additionally, the strain to failure of cancellous bone is about 5–7%, while cortical bone can only withstand 1–3% strain before failure. It should also be noted that these mechanical characteristics may degrade as a result of numerous factors such as any chemical treatment applied to the bone material, and the manner of storage after harvesting but prior to implantation (i.e. drying of bones).
Notably, implants of cancellous bone incorporate more readily with the surrounding host bone, due to the superior osteoconductive nature of cancellous bone as compared to cortical bone. Furthermore, cancellous bone from different regions of the body is known to have a range of porosities. Thus, the design of an implant using cancellous bone may be tailored to specifically incorporate material of a desired porosity.
There is a need for an allograft that properly utilizes the different properties of cortical and cancellous bone to improve stability and to promote growth of new bone to fuse the vertebrae being treated during intervertebral fusion.